Sport Talker

In one of the most significant upsets in Super Bowl history, the NFC champion New York Giants (14-6) defeated the AFC champion New England Patriots (18-1) by the score of 17-14.Had the Patriots won this game, they would have completed a the first perfect season in the NFL since the 1972 Miami Dolphins and the only one since the league expanded to a 16-game regular season in 1978.

The game was a rematch of both teams’ regular season-ending game on December 29, 2007, which the Patriots won to finish the regular season 16–0, with a score of 38–35 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

New England opened the bye week as 14-point favorites, but dipped to 12-point favorites by kickoff. In the end, after falling behind late in the fourth quarter, the Giants won 17–14 on a final-minute touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress. Manning was named the Most Valuable Player and the Giants became the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl.

The telecast was the most-watched Super Bowl in history, with an average of 97.5 million viewers in the United States. A record 148.3 million total viewers tuned into the game. It was also the second-most-watched TV program in the United States, behind the 1983 M*A*S*H series finale.

Earlier this month, the NFL announced that six teams were being considered as the team that gives up a home game during the 2007 season with the site to be either Great Britain or Germany. The teams being considered were the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Miami Dolphins, the New Orleans Saints, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Seattle Seahawks. This angered me as a NFL fan, a Buffalo Bills fan, and most importantly as a Buffalo region resident. Each NFL team only gets 8 home games, and many locales, stadium ushers, parking lot attendants, concession vendors, security guards, and local businesses rely on the employment and business generated from their corresponding team’s home games.

The Dolphin’s have been choosen to be the team to lose their home game this year. Their opponent will be either the NY Giants or the Buffalo Bills. I would assume the NFL would choose the Giants as their opponent since it would be a non-conference game and not have as much importance for the final AFC East standings (not like either the Bills or the Dolphins will be much of a factor come next December/January). But then again it seems the NFL has no rhyme or reason behind most of the things it does.

Over the next 16 seasons, each of the league’s 32 teams will participate in a regular season game outside the United States. At least that is what the plan is. What are they going to do when a riot breaks out because the stadium is packed full and they realize that this game is American Football and not soccer which they were expecting (I’m joking here, no angry emails please)! We shall see what happens and see if the NFL can successfully market itself overseas.